School Bus Invasion
by dragonprincess1988
Summary: Dick is stuck on a school bus filled with children during an alien invasion. Co-written with a friend


The bus jerked to a stop as Dick stared ahead. This wasn't going to be good. A pack of Fargers had congregated on the road ahead, and he was at least an hour out of Bludhaven. That wasn't even focusing on the fact that Gotham, Tim, and anyone else who was left at the moment was even further away. He needed help, but that wasn't going to be a likely scenario.

He heard the whispers and gasps of fear from the children. Some things just seemed really low...even for bloodthirsty meat-eating aliens. After all, they were just kids. Although, Dick was fairly certain that if Tim was here, he'd say something about how it was only logical, given that children aren't likely to be able to defend themselves, thus making them easy prey. Dick mentally shook his head as he subtly tried his comm. It wasn't likely that he was going to be able to reach anyone, but he figured it was still worth a try.

He sent the signal for help, but he couldn't afford to have the teacher or children on the bus thinking that he had suddenly lost his mind and was talking to himself. Dick prayed that if anyone got the signal, they'd get there in enough time to, if not help him, then at least know what had happened and try to save anyone who had survived. He glanced around the bus, and saw the teacher, whom he was accompanying on this field trip, staring at him. Clearly, she was hoping that Mr. Grayson had some type of plan, or would at least save her from the big ugly monsters outside. Most of the children, however, looked terrified; some of them seemed to be hoping that he would say something to make it better. Dick wanted to be able to give that to them, but lying to children wasn't something that he was ever particularly good at. Truth was, Dick didn't actually see a way out of this one. All he could hope for was that he'd be able to hold off the grotesque creatures long enough that someone could get as many of the children out as possible.

Dick's attention was brought away from the others on the bus when he caught the Fargers moving out of the corner of his eye. He moved to the top of the steps of the bus. There wasn't much high ground, but it was better than nothing. Even if it was only three rickety, gum-covered, metal steps that the rubber coating had peeled away from, of an old cheap school bus. Dick glanced back to the bus driver, who had been frozen in his seat by fear. "Get towards the back of the bus with the children. Stay away from the windows and doors, and keep everyone down near the floor. Can you do that?" Dick placed his hand on the guy's shoulder. He didn't blame him for his fear, or his lack of reaction, but now really wasn't the time.

The bus driver blinked a few times before nodding and heading towards the back of the bus. He grabbed Ms. Keller by the arm as he passed, and did exactly as Dick told him. Dick didn't think that the action would actually save anyone, but it would at least give him more room to work, and maybe, if they were all really lucky, give them more time for the help, which probably wasn't coming, to show. Dick mentally shook his head to chase out the dark thoughts. There was no reason to bring himself down at a time like this. After all, this fight was going to be hard enough without him thinking like Timmy.

The children started screaming the moment that the beasts started clawing at the door. Dick stood staring bleakly at the group of aliens scratching to get in. He couldn't tell the children that it'd be okay, or everything was going to be alright, because he was pretty sure that it wasn't going to be. There was no way that he could take on so many of these beasts by himself. If he was in Bludhaven, dressed as Nightwing, with an entire city of streets and buildings to maneuver through, cars to hit them with, and places to hide and attack from, maybe...just maybe he could pull it off, but that wasn't the case. Reality was, Dick was in the middle of flat ground with nothing but an old gas station beside them, and the worst part was that Dick knew that he wasn't even going to be able to make it to the gas station.

Dick braced himself as the aliens finally managed to rip the doors off. Charging into the mass of beasts wasn't going to do any good, but the doorway couldn't really fit more than two of them at a time, and it left the monstrous beasts with limited motion. Dick kicked and spun, as much as he could in such a small space, but the damn aliens were bigger and apparently had more dexterity than he thought. His high ground was short lived, and before he knew what was happening Dick could hear the children screaming louder, as they watched their friendly neighborhood museum curator, who just a few minutes ago had been slipping them candy, being pulled out of the bus.

XYZXYZ

"Fucking wonderful..." Red Hood drawled looking at the scene a half a mile away through Robin's binoculars.

"You _said_ you'd help, albeit I wasn't aware that the situation was this bad."

"Well, the dickhead should have fucking warned you."

Robin rolled his eyes behind his mask. "It's not like Dick Grayson can just contact Robin, you know."

"He could if he just..."

Robin held up his hand to stop him. "Not now."

Red Hood sneered, but Huntress interrupted before he could say anything. "Are you two boys done bickering yet? Cause I see a bus full of kids that needs saving and a museum curator under a rock."

Robin took back his binoculars to examine the scene. It wouldn't do anyone any good to go in any more unprepared than they already were.

"Well, Robin?" Red Hood seethed.

"The aliens seem to be waiting for…something, and no one but Dick seems to be hurt. Huntress you get Dick. Get him into the bus. The kids will like a woman better."

She growled at Robin's insinuation that she could ever be maternal. "Hey!"

Robin clearly was going to end up rolling his eyes a lot today. "You have less armor on than we do, and those aliens aren't easy to take down. Not to mention that you aren't Red Hood, so deal. Red Hood try to draw most of the Fargers away from the bus. I'll clear a perimeter, and then help you take down the rest of them."

Red Hood cocked his head to the side as he prepared to move in. "And I get to kill them, right?"

Robin sighed as he got into a crouch, and tried to find the most direct route to the aliens. "Yes, you get to kill them. They're aliens, and they're hell bent on eating all of us. Batman isn't here, and I don't see how we're going to get out of this if we leave them alive, but you are to kill them _nicely_."

Red Hood balked at that. "Nicely? What the hell does that mean?"

Robin sighed again. "It means that you don't get to blow them up where children can see, and try to keep your murderous glee to a contained level. I don't need those kids wondering why the hell Robin is hanging out with a joyous murdering psychopath."

"Oh, how you flatter me, kid." Red Hood was obviously smirking under his hood.

Robin glared at him impressively. "I mean it, Red Hood. There are small children around. How about you show some decorum."

Robin could tell that Red Hood was glaring back. "Fine."

Huntress waved her hand at them to get their attention. "That's all well and good, but how do you purpose I get our 'curator' out from under that rock?"

Robin stared at her for a moment as he started to wonder if he should rethink his plan, but he wasn't sure how much time they had left before the aliens resumed their rampage. He handed her a small beige square. "Explosive. Take off the backing, stick it on the rock on the _other_ side of Dick, and run. It should take enough rock with it for you to lift it off of him."

She glanced at the explosive in her hand before returning her gaze to Robin. "And Dick?"

Robin shrugged. "He's hurt enough already. A few more bruises won't make that much of a difference.

Huntress stashed the explosive as she stared at Robin. "Wow, you're kind of an asshole, kid, and damn cold, if I do say so myself."

"Hey, _I_ was the asshole Robin. Get your own gig, kid" Red Hood didn't even give Robin a chance to respond before he took off, running toward the group of Fargers.

XYZXYZ

Why three of the Fargers had separated from the pack, and decided to attack the gas station, Dick would probably never know, but he didn't think that it was all that important, considering it left him stuck under a massive chunk of the building. On one hand, Dick had witnessed first hand just how much concrete and rock the Fargers claws could cut through. On the other hand, Dick could easily imagine those claws cutting through him like a knife cutting through softened butter. If he was really lucky, though, one of the aliens would soon hit one of the gas lines, and then blow them all up. Dick was pretty sure that his thought process was really starting to get to be too much like Timmy's. Although, he was fairly certain that that wasn't going to be a problem much longer, because the ground felt wet beneath him, and he knew it hadn't rained out here in days. Maybe if he was really lucky, he'd just lost control of his bowels a little and he wasn't bleeding that much.

Dick was feeling cold, his vision was blurring, and the sounds of the aliens tearing into the building around him were starting to seem distant. He knew that he wasn't lucky enough to have just wet himself. He was going to pass out, and there was nothing that he could do about it. Dick tried to stay awake...tried to force his body to move...tried to push the piece of building from his body, but he couldn't. He was too weak and too tired, and everything was starting to dim. At least, once he blacked out he wouldn't be cold and wet. He'd just be...Dick's thoughts trailed off as unconsciousness overtook him.

XYZXYZ

Huntress followed behind Robin as he made a path through the rubble and aliens for her to get close enough to where Dick lay. It was clear to her that at some point Dick had passed out. It didn't take a genius to know that for any of the Bats to pass out from injuries alone, that it was bad...really bad. She hoped that he just took a head shot, but she didn't think that was a high probability.

She heard Red Hood making a ruckus on the other side of the area, away from the tumbled building and bus, in order to attract the beasts' attention. She was close enough to Dick now that she could tell that he was still breathing, but he was far too pale, and she knew that once she got that rock off of him, it was only the beginning of her task to save him.

Huntress moved to place the explosive, but before she could take more than two steps, a Farger emerged from behind the boulder crushing Dick. She involuntarily took a step back, as she tried to find the things weak spot; but before she could do more than adjust her stance, Robin grabbed her shoulders, and used her to vault over and land on the aliens head. He held two 'R' shrunken in his hands as he rained down blows on the ugly beast's head. "Get him out of here, Huntress. NOW!" Robin jumped off the thing's head, and took off running toward Red Hood to lure the thing away from Dick.

Huntress slapped the explosive onto the other side of the rock, and took off running in the other direction. Robin hadn't told her how long she had after placing the explosive, or how large the explosion would be, but she knew better than to stick around to find out. When the smoke cleared, Huntress quickly made her way back to Dick and prayed to whatever and whoever was listening that not all of that blood was his.

XYZXYZ

Dick felt an explosion go off somewhere, far away in a place he knew was referred to as reality, but he just couldn't seem to reach it. He felt the crushing pressure that had been holding him down release, and he knew that someone was dragging him away to...somewhere. His head hurt...scratch that...everything hurt. He was still cold, and the world seemed to be a small black place where nothing but pain reigned, but there was relief. Dick wasn't sure why, but he knew that this was better than before, even if it was only for a short while.

XYZXYZ

Robin lured another one of the Fargers toward the crumbling gas station, as, out of the corner of his eye, he caught Red Hood taunting two of them at the same time and looking unconcerned about the one coming up behind him. Robin thanked whatever was up there that Red Hood wore a hood, because the last thing anyone needed was the children seeing the gleeful expression that he knew was on Red Hood's face at killing these beasts. Robin watched as Red Hood dodged the attack from the Farger coming up behind him, and slid out of the way of the swipe of claws coming down towards him from one of the other ones in front of him. The three aliens surrounded Red Hood, but he spun around behind one, and used the other two's momentum as they rushed him to force the beasts to attack each other.

Robin motioned for Red Hood to follow him. "Lead the rest of them back towards the gas station. I have a plan."

Red Hood flipped over the pile of struggling aliens. "This is going to involve an explosion, isn't it?"

Robin wasn't sure that he was comfortable with that tone and the amount of joy in Red Hood's voice, but that was a discussion for another time. "If it all goes as planned, then yes, it will involve an explosion. Hopefully a nice big explosion."

Red Hood laughed maniacally before turning to the group of aliens heading toward the bus again. He whistled as he threw some rocks to get their attention. "Hey uglies, I've got a pack of C-4 that's just dying to be used." Red Hood sing-songed as he started walking back towards the gas station.

XYZXYZ

In her time on the pathetic, rickety old bus, Huntress had come to two conclusions. First, she was NEVER having children, and second, school bus 'first aid' kits sucked. Dick had stayed quiet and unconscious throughout her attempts at ministrations with such shoddy supplies, not that that was surprising with the amount of blood that he had lost. She had also come to another conclusion that Robin was _not_ going to like. They had to call in the regular guys in blue to get him to the hospital, because those damn aliens had destroyed the engine, and moving Dick wasn't going to be safe or easy. They had to somehow get Dick to the hospital and pronto. He needed the kind of medical attention only a large facility could offer, and even then she wasn't entirely sure that he was going to make it.

She turned as she heard a noise at the front of the bus and saw a Farger trying to get on, but before she could move, Red Hood was handling the situation with far too much glee. She glanced passed the teacher, and inwardly sneered at the woman who had become a useless mass of sniveling fear. She had expected such from the kids, but some of the children were more calm and proactive than their teacher was. The bus driver, on the other hand, was doing as much as he could to help her stem Dick's bleeding, and he seemed to be taking everything quite well...all things considered.

Huntress glanced down as she heard Dick moan and saw him try to move before she was able to pin him down again. He cracked open the one eye that wasn't swollen shut, and tried to speak, but at first nothing came out. After a dry cough he managed to whisper, "Huntress?"

She put a finger to his lips and nudged her head in the direction of the bus driver and then at the children. "Shh, not now." He nodded and fell back into unconsciousness.

She heard the fighting die down, and turned to see Robin at the front of the bus. There were a few surprised and admiring gasps from the children who recognized him. She slid out of the way, so that he could see Dick. Robin's expression stayed blank, however, and she wondered if he had any emotions. "How bad, Huntress?"

"From what I can tell he's lost a lot of blood, half his ribs are broken, and he's all kinds of beat up."

Robin nodded once curtly. "You and Red Hood will take him to the nearest hospital. I'll stay here and try to repair the engine. I've got a feeling there might be another wave of those things coming. I can't imagine why they would have stuck around not doing anything once they had access to the bus unless they were waiting for orders."

She almost balked at his statement, but moved past it with a nod, and then turned to open the back door of the bus. Before her hand reached the lever, there was an explosion outside that rocked the bus.

"RED HOOD!" Robin yelled, as Red Hood appeared by the back door and hopped in when Huntress opened it.

"What did we talk about?" Robin seethed.

Red Hood shrugged, and Huntress was pretty sure that he was sporting his version of an innocent look under his hood. "You said to make it big."

Robin folded his arms over his chest. "I said DON'T make it TOO big."

Red Hood waved a hand at him, as if to dismiss his anger. "Big deal, they're all dead, and we're still here. All's well that ends well."

Huntress watched as Robin obviously tried to calm himself. "You and Huntress will take this man to the hospital while I stay with the children. Is that understood?"

Red Hood shrugged as he dusted off his jacket. "Sure, yeah, fine, whatever." The petulant response was spoken as he headed out of the back door of the bus to go get the jet that they had flown to the scene in.

Robin was about to go double check Huntress's work on Dick and get him as ready as possible for transport, when he suddenly felt a tug on his cape. He glanced down to see a small girl in a little blue dress, with pigtails in her hair, biting her bottom lip nervously. He crouched down, so that he was at eye level with her. "Yes?"

She stared at him with big wide eyes, clearly frightened and worried. "Is Mr. Grayson going to be okay?"

"I…" Robin trailed looking over at Dick. "I don't know."

"Oh," was all that the little girl said before going back to her seat and hugging her backpack.

Robin glanced up to Huntress as she gave him an exasperated sigh. She thought that he could have at least lied to the girl. She motioned for the bus driver to go talk to the little girl. She figured maybe someone with human emotions and a regular job might do a little better. Huntress was about to go have a word with Robin about keeping up the poor kids' spirits when she heard Dick moan again and she crouched down to see if he was going to wake up or not. She only heard the flutter of Robin's cape as he went to work on the engine.

XYZXYZ

Robin left the bus to make sure that there weren't any stray Fargers lurking around before getting to work on the engine. He had no idea how he was going to fix it. It looked like the aliens had decided to start gnawing on it or something. There were stray wires hanging out, and he was pretty sure that there was a chunk taken out of the side. He was fairly certain that getting the bus running again was hopeless, but at least if he kept himself busy he wouldn't have to think about how hurt Dick was. He really couldn't stand to lose another one of his family.

When Red Hood returned with the jet, Robin moved back into the bus to help transport Dick. He knew that moving Dick was going to be a dangerous and difficult operation. School buses just weren't designed with possibly fatally injured victims in mind. The children were another problem. They didn't seem to have to many problems with listening and moving to wherever they were directed, but their worried expressions were making it difficult for him to hide his own concern.

The three of them managed to maneuver Dick into the jet with only a minimal amount of problems, but Tim was well aware that that was due to luck and skill more than anything else. Once Huntress and Red Hood were gone. Robin contacted the authorities for transport. He didn't want to be here any longer than necessary. He sat on the floor in the middle of the bus, surrounded by children, and allowed them to ask him questions as he juggled his less dangerous weapons.

XYZXYZ

When he awoke, it was to the familiar sound of someone typing. He felt significantly less pain, and also significantly less coherent than normal, which led him to the conclusion that he had been given pain killers or sedatives. Dick wanted to continue sleeping. Sleep was so much less painful, and it didn't lead to bright lights or cold prodding hands, but the light tapping sound of the keys convinced him that he needed to open his eyes...even if it was just to reassure himself that he wasn't dead. Dick silently tried to coax his eyes into opening, but they seemed against it. He promised himself that the bright light would only hurt for a few moments until he adjusted, and it wouldn't even take that long for him, due to his Bat training.

"You know, I could just shut off the light for you, if that's why you're still not opening your eyes."

Dick's eyes flashed open the moment that he recognized the voice."Tim." He coughed out the name, and tried again when Tim just sat there and continued to type on his laptop.

"Shh, the nurse will be in soon. I paged her the moment that you woke up." He didn't glance up from whatever he was doing.

It gave Dick enough time to look at him...really look at him. His hair was tousled, his jeans and band t-shirt were a bit crumpled, he had bags under his eyes, (more so than usual) and he looked as though he hadn't slept for days. Tim certainly didn't look like he fit in his Timothy Drake Wayne, co-heir to the Wayne fortune guise today, but, then again neither did he, Dick supposed, lying in a hospital bed half-drugged out of his mind, wondering how exactly he got there. Not to mention, a hospital gown was _not_ proper attire for any one.

"Timmy?"

"We'll speak once the doctor has checked you out."

Dick wanted to say something, but before he got a chance there was a knock on the door and the nurse walked in. "Someone paged the nurses' station from this room." She spoke before she glanced up from her chart and noticed that Dick was awake. "Oh, Mr. Grayson, you're awake. Well, I'll just go get the doctor for you." She gave a curt nod before heading out of the door again.

Tim sat quietly, still working on his laptop, as the doctor checked Dick over. Dick really wanted to get up and move, but he knew that wasn't going to be happening anytime soon. He figured that he wasn't in a full body cast, so that was something; but there was nothing Dick hated more than being unable to go through his normal routine due to injury. Once the doctor cleared Dick and left to go get the discharge papers, Dick turned to Tim. "So what did I miss?"

Tim still didn't glance up as he spoke. "Jason was surprisingly very helpful in taking out the Fargers. If you want the details of that you can read the report when we get home. You'll be staying at the manor for the duration of the healing process, and no, you really don't get to argue that one."

Dick just blinked a few times at Tim. "That's it?"

Tim finally closed the laptop and looked at him, but his expression was still impassive. "What else would I have to say?"

"I..." Dick trailed off not really sure what to say.

Tim glared at him for a moment. "I thought you might want to hold off on the fight until we get back to the manor."

Dick raised an eyebrow at him. "Fight?"

Tim nodded once. "Yeah, fight. What the hell were you thinking, Dick? Do you have a frickin' death wish? What the hell was your plan? Did you honestly believe that you could take on so many by yourself?" Tim took a deep breath, but instead of continuing his barrage of questions, he simply stood up and walked toward the door. "You know what? No, we're not doing this here."

Dick reached out to him, but he knew that he couldn't get to Tim before he left. Tim's hand was on the door knob. "Timmy, wait." Tim's hand paused on the handle, and Dick continued. "It...it wasn't like that. I knew we probably weren't going to get out of there alive, but...but I couldn't just stand there. I had to fight. I had to try. I had to give those kids some type of chance, and hope that you would be there in enough time to save them. I had to do something. You know that..."

Before he could finish Tim slammed into him with a hug that made every broken bone hurt even with the painkillers. "Yeah, well don't do it again."

Dick wrapped his arms around Tim and squeezed as much as he could. "I don't plan on it."

"Good," Tim nodded as he slipped out of the embrace and straightened his shirt. "Because I really don't like explaining to Bruce that his oldest son is unconscious and keeps trying to hit on his IV bag for the few moments that he is conscious."

Dick squawked indignantly at his little brother. "I did not."

Tim tried to cover his laugh, but failed completely. "Did too."

"Oh God, what else did I do?"

Tim smirked. "Well, there's video of it on youtube."

The end


End file.
